Hellboy

• Title: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1955 – Burning Season (One-shot)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writers: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson
• Artist: Paolo Rivera

Set in 1950s Florida, the B.P.R.D. team of Hellboy, Susan Xiang, and Trevor Bruttenholm is called in to investigate a series of spontaneous human combustions which have local law enforcement baffled. After first eliminating a scientific cause for the incidents (one of which they witness shortly after arriving on the scene), the team instead begins to look for a mystical reason for the bizarre events.

Research by Bruttenholm reveals plenty of bad juju in the area. Susan Xiang’s search for a single spirit born out of such suffering and lashing out reveals that it isn’t a single entity that the team is dealing with but an accumulation of pain and despair so rich it has been made manifest and is lashing out not to be forgotten. Only Hellboy’s immunity to flame lets him survive the latest attack long enough to acknowledge what has happened rather than fight the flaming death that comes for him.

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• Title: Koshchei the Deathless #2 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Mike Mignola
• Artist: Ben Stenbeck

In the second issue of the six-issue mini-series, Koshchei continues his tale. After making a pact with Baba Yaga, the warrior (and his few remaining soldiers the witch didn’t kill) journey through a woods and beyond on their quest to kill dragons before a new generation can be born. Along the way they will meet Yeshii the woodsman, the grown human son of a cow, and a cursed man now living out his existence as a snake. They also follow a magical ball of yarn for a bit.

The odd journey will eventually lead them to the ruins of the once great Kingdom of Dragons, the unhatched eggs the witch told Koshchei about… and their protector who isn’t so keen on visitors.

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• Title: Koshchei the Deathless #1 (of 6)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Mike Mignola
• Artist: Ben Stenbeck

With the first issue of the new six-issue mini-series Hellboy creator Mike Mignola turns his attention back towards Koshchei, the cursed immortal sent to kill Hellboy by Baba Yaga in Hellboy: Darkness Calls. Opening with Hellboy and Koshchei in Hell, Koshchei the Deathless #1 takes place mostly in an extended flashback of the immortal sharing his tale including his apprenticeship under a dragon, his fame as a warrior, the tragedy of his marriage leading to death and immortality, and his first meeting with Baba Yaga.

Ben Stenbeck is a good choice for the comic’s artist, fitting well into the look of the Hellboy universe. Although we don’t get much of Big Red, I do like the look of Koshchei, the dragon, and the various others to pass the immortal’s path.

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• Title: The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #4 (of 5)
• Comic Vine: link
• Writers: Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson
• Artist: Paul Grist

The penultimate issue of Dark Horse’s five-issue mini-series offers a further look into the life of the mysterious Visitor. Set decades after the first issue, Hellboy has grown into the hero that the alien always hoped he could be. However, he and the B.P.R.D. still need his unseen help from time to time with anonymous tips and even taking down a cult leader when needed.

Much of The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed #4 focuses on the Visitor’s life away from Hellboy and the life he made with his wife Ruby. Although the issue is a celebration of the pair’s life together, in spite of what society of the times thought of them, there is melancholy feel in this issue as Ruby’s memory slips.

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